Staying at home, the pile of library books is calling. They must be read before we are released from isolation, though that uncertain time undermines my determination to read them all. Top of the pile? Sir Laurence Hartnett’s Big Wheels and Little Wheels. I retrieve this chatty book quite regularly from the City of Port […]
Main Content
Port & South
Port Places in the time of COVID-19
A State of Emergency was declared in Victoria on 16th March. In just one week we have experienced changes and adopted practices unimaginable a few weeks ago. People have retreated indoors to social isolation hoping to ‘flatten the curve’. The streets are quiet. The spaces between people are growing in the dog park. Cafes are […]
Docklands
Central Pier, Docklands
The abrupt closure of Central Pier in August last year, confirmed in early January, has implications beyond the distress to affected businesses and their staff. Development Victoria, the owner of the Pier, insists that the closure is necessary for public safety. Central Pier, built in 1916, was one of the later structures to be built […]
Yarra & Bay
Yarra River-Birrarung
The 50 year community vision What is good for the Yarra is good for all Twenty four Victorians from all parts of the Yarra came together with representatives from the Wurundjeri Tribe Council to consider input from the community and draft the formal vision. Here it is: Our Yarra River, Birrarung, is recognised around the […]
Port of Melbourne
Narrative of progress
The tapestries Port Reflections and Port Impressions hang in the terminal building on Station Pier but this was not their original home. Here’s the back story. The Melbourne Harbor Trust (MHT) turned itself inside out to prepare the port for the arrival of the first container ship in 1969. Container ships needed completely different infrastructure […]
Southbank
Spring Cleaning The City
No rest for the committed. The day after the Global Climate Strike, it was the second Spring Clean the City. The gathering place was Queensbridge Square on the Southbank Promenade. Not so much a successful public square as an intersection of spaces that are moved through rather than lingered in. Even though the Red Stair […]
Urban planning
Folly and Modesty
21 Alfred St, Port Melbourne I believe that Grand Design aired the episode that featured this house recently. This is the post I wrote about it five years ago, on 21 August 2014. H House in Port Melbourne was featured in The Age on Saturday 16 August. It’s tucked away in a corner of Port […]
Waste – waste warriors, activists & artists
Transformation
Port Places is devoted to stories of the transformation of places of the lower Yarra – from streets and parks to Fishermans Bend, the biggest urban renewal area in Australia. The imperative for transformation at every scale and in every facet of society and the economy has been given added urgency by the climate emergency. […]
People making change
The reporting season
In a cycle more predictable than the erratic seasons, community organisations account to their members at the annual general meeting. Since the annual meeting must be held within five months of the end of the financial year, usually 30 June, the latter half of the year is thick with AGMs. Every association is guided by […]